August 17, 1864

The Trying Time for the Union Party

he brief time before the Presidential election will
test, as never before, the stamina of the Union
party. Hitherto it has floated along on the war spirit of the people without any very dangerous trial.
In the beginning of the war it made its start as a party expressly pledged to the maintenance of an
unbroken nationality at whatever price of treasure and blood. It appealed to every patriotic
principle and instinct of the people, and almost always found an easy triumph. When beaten at all,
it was only by the deception of its adversaries in stealing into its camp and assuming its own Union
watchwords. There never has been a time in which the great majority of the people has designedly
swerved from the aim for which the party was expressly organized--the perpetuation of an
undivided Republic.

But the close approach of the Presidential election is subjecting the party to new trials. Mr. Lincoln
has been nominated for a reelection because his position and policy had identified him peculiarly
with the Union cause, and because it was deemed that his reelection would most significantly
declare to the South and to the world the unalienable determination of the loyal majority of the
country to subdue the rebellion and save the nation. These were the best of reasons. They made his
renomination almost a civil necessity. But it brought with it its disadvantages. It is not morally
possible that this Government can be administered by any man for four years without disappointing
and offending individuals who begun as friends of the Administration. There are always diverse
opinions and desires in every party, which cannot all be satisfied; and from the time of Washington
down there has been no Administration which has not bred thousands of malcontents within the
party which sustained it. President Lincoln, instead of forming an exception, has produced these
private griefs in the same proportion as the policies which have been pressed upon him have been
peculiarly multiform and important. There was no such thing as harmonizing them. The President
could only adopt the line of action best suited to the emergency in his judgment, and of course, on
each occasion, dissatisfied those whose judgment was different. Then again the war has put in his
hands the distribution of far more offices, both civil and military, than any other President has ever
possessed. He has been obliged to make and unmake appointments in the public service to an
unprecedented extent. It has long been a political maxim that every such executive act alienates
twice as many as it satisfies. The Union party in renominating Mr. Lincoln has to assume not only
the drawback of the personal estrangements springing from such causes, but also the drawback of
the President's positive errors. No rational man denies that he has committed such errors. He is
human, and therefore abundantly fallible. A fair man will fairly weigh these errors against those
which it might be fairly presumed would be committed by any mortal in his trying place. But there
is no small portion of the voting community who do not judge in this way, but are ready to
condemn Mr. Lincoln for his mistakes in office, and give confidence to some other man for having
made no mistakes out of office. Had the Union party nominated a new man, it would have had a
clearer record for its candidate, so far as the past is concerned. As regards a certain class of voters,
this would have been an advantage, though it is manifest to every thinking man, that the experience
he has now acquired would probably exempt Mr. Lincoln to a greater extent, from mistakes during
the next Presidential term, than could be reasonably expected in the case of any fresh incumbent
without experience. There is not a General in the field who has not at times made mistakes. We
should be to-day without a solitary Commander were all dismissed who had erred; yet there will be
tens of thousands who will be for dismissing Mr. Lincoln for no other reason. These imperfections,
incident to all humanity, will be used, with not a little effect, to chill the ardor of even every good
man for the cause.

There is not only this great danger of dissension in the Union party, but the Copperheads, it is
certain, will attack with greater insidiousness and ranker virulence than ever. They know that this
is their last chance. If Mr. Lincoln is reelected, it is certain that the war policy will be maintained,
until it is carried through to its legitimate termination. The same vote that elects him will in all
probability secure a House of Representatives as staunch as he, and the Government would move
on with unimpeded, resistless power in its work of putting down the rebellion. What the
Cooperheads can ever do, they must attempt during the first two Fall months. The Union party
should prepare itself for a political campaign, after the Cooperhead nomination is made, of an
intensity never perhaps equaled in the political history of the country. It is foolish to calculate upon
their inability to agree upon a common candidate. With all their discord, hatred of the Union party
is still their master passion. We may rely upon it that they will find some way of compounding
their differences, and combining every art and every energy of every section of the party to
compass our defeat. The rebels will play the part of good allies so far as they can. Their presses
everywhere evince that they have the defeat of Mr. Lincoln quite as much at heart as the
Copperheads themselves. Of course they can only indirectly engage in this political campaign, but
for all that they will prove serviceable auxiliaries to the Copperheads, and make the combined
opposition to Mr. Lincoln very formidable.

All true Union men should clearly understand the various dangers which threaten the Union party.
Over-confidence is always weak; and, in this case, it might prove fatal. From now until election,
every member of the party should study to promote its harmony, to compact its organization, to fire
its spirit. No tolerance should be shown to complaints or croakings; for these always relate to
points of minor consequence, without claim when vital concerns are at stake. It has been the
deliberate judgment of the Union party, affirmed in regular convention with a unanimity almost
unparalleled in such bodies, that Mr. Lincoln, under existing circumstances, is the most expedient
candidate for the Union cause. That of itself should be sufficient to enlist for him the earnest
support of every true Union man.